shouldn't multiplatform games be cheaper?

[Snickerzz]

Since the next gens and pcs are pretty much the same, porting them shouldn't cost much, so shouldn't the games on multiple platforms be cheaper? like cod, battlefield, gta. ect

[AraSarkisyan]

porting is pretty difficult.

[Snickerzz]

porting is pretty difficult.

when everythings x86 based?

[felixbearpig]

when everythings x86 based?

yes, because everything might have the same architecture but you still have to make sure it works with the system,for consoles, and the os

[ixi_your_face]

yes, because everything might have the same architecture but you still have to make sure it works with the system,for consoles, and the os

 

It still shouldn't cost as much, considering they don't have to fix for the architecture.

[SMURG]

when everythings x86 based?

Well yeah cos it has to be able to work on hardware other than just what the consoles are using. Ideally, it also has to be able to work on worse hardware than what the consoles have, as well as being able to take advantage of the full power of better hardware, at least to an extent. Ported games also have to support all the PC controls on keyboard/mouse rather than just the controllers, and ideally also have to work on a wider range of resolutions for people who want to do triple screens or game at 4K or 1600p or 1440p, rather than just 1080p.

[TheGreatSkott]

relatively speaking though it should be much easier. My guess is that the money saved porting the games will go somewhere else. probably straight into the profit but i could just be cynical.

[Helltech]

yes, because everything might have the same architecture but you still have to make sure it works with the system,for consoles, and the os

 

It still should be cheaper though.

 

Regardless it won't happen. 

[SMURG]

It still shouldn't cost as much, considering they don't have to fix for the architecture.

They never had to 'fix' the architecture. All the x86 architecture being shared is going to mean is that the consoles have less of a performance gain from optimisations for their architecture, and PCs get a performance boost since they're not having to emulate. That's great for PC gamers since it means free fps, but it doesn't really decrease the cost of porting the game cos all the expensive things are ones like I mentioned before.

[Eddyall]

In theory when the platform were different no you should have similar workload on every other machine than the main development one.

Now that "everything is a PC" yes it should be a lot cheaper (ergo simpler and faster) to port games but as development cost is increasing probably not going to affect pricing in the short term.

[ajoy39]

They never had to 'fix' the architecture. All the x86 architecture being shared is going to mean is that the consoles have less of a performance gain from optimisations for their architecture, and PCs get a performance boost since they're not having to emulate. That's great for PC gamers since it means free fps, but it doesn't really decrease the cost of porting the game cos all the expensive things are ones like I mentioned before.

uh, no thats not really true. the different architectures were a huge problem. you had t be some sort of wizard to get your game working fully on PS3 last gen.

[SMURG]

uh, no thats not really true. the different architectures were a huge problem. you had t be some sort of wizard to get your game working fully on PS3 last gen.

What I was saying was they didn't have to take a game, and convert it into x86. All they had to do was write something in x86 to emulate the PS3 game. Therefore there was a performance hit, which now the architectures are shared should be less of an issue. That's what I see as being the main benefit from the shared architectures.

Porting from PS3 to PC was quite a bit easier than trying to port from PC to PS3.

[geforceftw]

gta5 is not going to be on pc. unless they announced it will ion the last few days. 

[SMURG]

gta5 is not going to be on pc. unless they announced it will ion the last few days. 

Whilst GTA5 is not a game which interests me, I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that it had been listed as a PC version on a couple of European retaliers, and people were taking this as proof that it would indeed be on PC. I'm no authority on the subject ofc, I just wondered if you'd heard about that

[Snickerzz]

gta5 is not going to be on pc. unless they announced it will ion the last few days. 

yes it will, they've done this for almost all GTAs, console first, then pc. for 5 they haven't confirmed nor denied it coming to pc

[geforceftw]

Whilst GTA5 is not a game which interests me, I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that it had been listed as a PC version on a couple of European retaliers, and people were taking this as proof that it would indeed be on PC. I'm no authority on the subject ofc, I just wondered if you'd heard about that

i hope your right. and this nime with the x86 consoles i hope they have a good port not gta4...

[Blade of Grass]

I highly doubt that a game dev like EA or Ubisoft are going to lower the price of the games, even if their costs are lowered, They'll be losing that extra profit.

[ajoy39]

Whilst GTA5 is not a game which interests me, I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that it had been listed as a PC version on a couple of European retaliers, and people were taking this as proof that it would indeed be on PC. I'm no authority on the subject ofc, I just wondered if you'd heard about that

yeah thats not how it worked......

[Eddyall]

Maybe they assume it was for PC too, probably happen a couple of times.

[Dodge]

Since the next gens and pcs are pretty much the same, porting them shouldn't cost much, so shouldn't the games on multiple platforms be cheaper? like cod, battlefield, gta. ect

Not really, they simply keep the money. But porting games isn't that expensive compared to the budgets of big AAA-titles anyway and will still cost money.

[Samdb]

They will probably be cheaper to port, however they won't change the price as not many people know about the similar architectures.

[91wow]

Like someone said earlier, yes it will be cheaper to port... BUT they still have to make sure it works on ALL OS's even now people are pushing for game DEVS to make games compatible for MAC and some are even doing it for linux so take it as this. They have to make for the most popular OS's. Win 7, win 8, Mac OSX, Sony's OS, and Xbox OS. Yes same X86 base but still will need small amounts of code tweaking. It should be cheaper on the PC since all next gen games pretty much will be on the PC more than console and sold for PC more than ever before. in 2006 PC gaming was not at the level it is now the consoles did out do most gaming PC's then but now they are 5-10 times less powerful than a I7 3970X and a GTX Titan system so they made the games for the console and not so much for the PC but now that is switching.